Equal application of law

The Issue: CUC’s announced plans to disconnect delinquent non-essential government agencies.

Our View: It’s equal application of law for all consumers–agencies, commercial and residential customers alike.

Waste in the public sector is aplenty. It is now caught juggling a $12 million delinquent utility bill it must pay or face disconnection. In the meantime, it piles up a utility bill of not less than $1 million a month. However, it could only pay a fourth ($250,000) of this sum, according to government budget people.

If this amount of debt is incurred by a commercial user, it takes CUC less than 90 days before disconnection is imposed. Never mind that the adverse effects of the Asian crisis has descended among the struggling business community here, disconnection is a guarantee. There’s no consideration to grant the business community reasonable grace periods to make-up (hoping the economy makes substantial recovery) so that they can eventually pay off their utility bills and taxes even before profit.

In the residential sector, a delinquency is treated with equal vigor–disconnection. About the only exception granted are recipients of as utility assistance program (retirees or low income families) who hardly make ends meet with their meager income. Otherwise, it’s either you pay and play or suffer dark nights and all the inconveniences that come with the territory.

For the first time in its history, CUC had the courage to place the local government on notice that it either pays its utility bill or suffer the consequences of powerless days that could bring work to a screeching halt. For the first time too, public agencies are brought to their senses that nothing is free even in the use of water, sewer and power. Someone must pay for it and in this instance, the unpaid balance is knocking at the front doors of individual agency.

If other customers are getting disconnection as a result of delinquent utility bills, so too must government agencies who have taken things for granted all these years. The $12 million utility debt must be paid just like commercial and residential customers have submitted their monthly remittance. Nothing is free and public sector employees must come to grips with this reality, now! Si Yuus Maase`!